GOBLET D'ALVIELLA, Eugène. - Belgian political figure, active in the anticlerical Liberal Party, and historian of religions, b. Brussels 1846, d. there 9 Sept. 1925. He served as senator from 1892 and was professor of the history of religions in the chair created for him (1884) at the Free University of Brussels, where he followed the current of religious ethnology sponsored by E. B. Tylor and H. Spencer.
His various minor contributions on the subject, first published sporadically in *Revue de Belgique*, *Revue de l'histoire des religions*, *Revue des deux mondes*, were later collected in three volumes under the general title *Croyances, rites, institutions* (Paris 1911), dealing with topics in the history of religions in three branches: *hierographie*, *hierologie*, *hierosophie*, meaning by hierography (“description of the sacred”) the exposition of the beliefs and rites of various peoples; by hierology (“doctrine of the sacred”) the treatment of the constitutive principles of the science of religions and of general religious phenomenology; and by hierosophy (“philosophy of the sacred”) the ensemble of theological and philosophical conclusions that may be drawn from the comparative examination of religious facts, especially with regard to man and his relation to God and the universe.
A notable work is *Evolution religieuse contemporaine chez les Anglais, les Américains et les Hindous* (Paris 1883), in which he aims to provide material for the history of religious rationalism in the second half of the 19th century. In this respect, the work, despite its viewpoint, is useful because it expounds the development of various Protestant currents in England and America, as well as the influence exerted by Christianity on the educated minds of India, a region he visited in 1876 in the company of the future Edward VII; an influence that resulted in SAMMAJ (v.), the “Society of God,” a blend of Christian theism and Hindu pantheism, which later branched out into several others.
Other works by G. d’A. include *Introd. à l'histoire générale des religions* (Paris 1887); *Ce que l'Inde doit à la Grèce* (ibid. 1898); *Eleusinia* (ibid. 1903); *Les sciences auxiliaires de l'histoire comparée des religions*, in *Trans. of III Intern. Congr. Hist. Rel.* (II, Oxford 1908, pp. 365 ff.). His *L'idée de Dieu d'après l'anthropologie et l'histoire* (Paris 1892) was placed on the Index (decree 26 Jan. 1893).